Occurrence of Histamine in Commercial Cat Foods under Different Storage Conditions

In fish-based foods, one of the effects of inappropriate storage can be the formation of biogenic amines. Among these, histamine is considered one of the most toxic. The purpose of the present study is to assess the occurrence of histamine in fish-based pet foods, and to evaluate the changes in histamine content during storage at different temperatures. For the analysis, an LC-MS/MS method was used. Fifty-eight pet foods were purchased, and an aliquot of them was analyzed just after opening the packages. Histamine was detected in 12 samples and concentrations ranged from 1.5 to 30.1 mg/kg. The remaining of each positive sample was divided into seven subsamples. One of them was used as a control sample and kept at -20 °C, while the other six were exposed to different environmental conditions. Samples exposed to room temperature showed no significant changes in histamine levels, while samples exposed to high temperatures showed significant increases in histamine content. Finally, samples exposed to refrigerator temperature showed a slight decrease in histamine levels. Under the experimental conditions, the EU limit of 100 mg/kg established for fishery products was never exceeded. These results seem to indicate a low risk of histamine intoxication in cats fed fish-based pet food

A Chemical Equilibrium Model of the Coal Gasification Process Based on the Minimization of the Gibbs Free Energy

Proc. of FLOWERS'97, Florence, 30 July - 1 Augus

Relating balance and conditional independence in graphical models

When data are available for all nodes of a Gaussian graphical model, then, it is possible to use sample correlations and partial correlations to test to what extent the conditional independencies that encode the structure of the model are indeed verified by the data. In this paper, we give a heuristic rule useful in such a validation process: When the correlation subgraph involved in a conditional independence is balanced (i.e., all its cycles have an even number of negative edges), then a partial correlation is usually a contraction of the corresponding correlation, which often leads to conditional independence. In particular, the contraction rule can be made rigorous if we look at concentration subgraphs rather than correlation subgraphs. The rule is applied to real data for elementary gene regulatory motifs.Funding Agencies|SSF; ELLIIT research framework at LiU; [SB16-0011]</p

Analysis and Simulation of an Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle Power Plant

Proc. of ECOS '98 (Efficiency, Costs, Optimization, Simulation and Environmental Aspects of Energy Systems and Processes), Nancy (France), 8-10 Jul

Occurrence of ochratoxin A in typical salami produced in different regions of Italy

A total of 172 different salamis were purchased from farms and small salami factories located in four Italian regions (Piedmont, Veneto, Calabria, and Sicily) and analyzed for the presence of ochratoxin A (OTA). Analysis was performed by high-performance liquid chromatography coupled to a fluorimetric detector (HPLC-FLD). The detection limit (LOD) for the method used was 0.05 μg/kg, while the quantitation limit (LOQ) was 0.20 μg/kg; the average recovery rate was 89.1%. OTA was detected in 22 salamis, and 3 samples exceeded the Italian guidance value for OTA in pork meat (1 μg/kg). In particular, what emerges from this research is the high percentage of spicy salamis among positive samples (68.2%, 15 out of 22), although spicy salamis are only 27.3% of the total number of samples collected and analyzed. Red chili pepper contaminated by OTA could be responsible for the presence of the mycotoxin in these spicy salamis. It follow that, also the control of some ingredients used in the manufacture of these meat products, like spices, should not be neglected

Using high-throughput multi-omics data to investigate structural balance in elementary gene regulatory network motifs

Motivation: The simultaneous availability of ATAC-seq and RNA-seq experiments allows to obtain a more in-depth knowledge on the regulatory mechanisms occurring in gene regulatory networks. In this article, we highlight and analyze two novel aspects that leverage on the possibility of pairing RNA-seq and ATAC-seq data. Namely we investigate the causality of the relationships between transcription factors, chromatin and target genes and the internal consistency between the two omics, here measured in terms of structural balance in the sample correlations along elementary length-3 cycles. Results: We propose a framework that uses the a priori knowledge on the data to infer elementary causal regulatory motifs (namely chains and forks) in the network. It is based on the notions of conditional independence and partial correlation, and can be applied to both longitudinal and non-longitudinal data. Our analysis highlights a strong connection between the causal regulatory motifs that are selected by the data and the structural balance of the underlying sample correlation graphs: strikingly, &amp;gt;97% of the selected regulatory motifs belong to a balanced subgraph. This result shows that internal consistency, as measured by structural balance, is close to a necessary condition for 3-node regulatory motifs to satisfy causality rules.Funding Agencies|Swedish Foundation for Strategic ResearchSwedish Foundation for Strategic Research [SB16-0011]</p

Ochratoxin A in artisan salami produced in Veneto (Italy)

Fifty samples of artisan salami purchased in Veneto (Italy) were analysed for the determination of ochratoxin A (OTA). The analytical method, based on a sample preparation procedure with immunoaffinity columns (IACs), together with analysis by high-performance liquid chromatography with fluorescence detection (HPLC-FD), has guaranteed a high rate of recovery (about 97%), limit of detection (LOD) and limit of quantification (LOQ), respectively, of 0.06\ua0\ub5g\ua0kg 121 and 0.20\ua0\ub5g\ua0kg 121. OTA was detected in five samples, but only one exceeded the guideline value (1\ua0\ub5g\ua0kg 121) established by the Italian Ministry of Health for pork meat and derived products. The results would seem to suggest that salami made with the traditional, non-industrial production method can be considered safe as regards contamination by OTA. However, the very high concentration observed in one sample proves that a high OTA contamination is also possible in this type of product. Thus, the controls of mycotoxin contamination must consider also salami

Multi-omics protein-coding units as massively parallel Bayesian networks : Empirical validation of causality structure

In this article we use high-throughput epigenomics, transcriptomics, and proteomics data to construct fine-graded models of the "protein-coding units"gathering all transcript isoforms and chromatin accessibility peaks associated with more than 4000 genes in humans. Each protein-coding unit has the structure of a directed acyclic graph (DAG) and can be represented as a Bayesian network. The factorization of the joint probability distribution induced by the DAGs imposes a number of conditional independence relationships among the variables forming a protein-coding unit, corresponding to the missing edges in the DAGs. We show that a large fraction of these conditional independencies are indeed verified by the data. Factors driving this verification appear to be the structural and functional annotation of the transcript isoforms, as well as a notion of structural balance (or frustration-free) of the corresponding sample correlation graph, which naturally leads to reduction of correlation (and hence to independence) upon conditioning.Funding Agencies: Swedish Foundation for Strategic Research [SB16-0011]</p

Occurrence of Aflatoxin M1 (AFM1) in Donkey Milk Collected in Northern Italy

Aflatoxin M1 (AFM1) is a well-known mycotoxin that can be found in the milk of animals that have ingested feed contaminated with aflatoxin B1 (AFB1). In Italy, the development of donkey farms is mainly due to growing request of donkey milk, which is considered an incomparable substitute for human mother’s milk for its chemical composition and organoleptic characteristics. The aim of this study was to assess the occurrence of AFM1 in donkey milk produced in a farm in Northern Italy, also in view of the few data available about the presence of this mycotoxin in this type of milk. Therefore, 63 milk samples were collected and analyzed using a fast and sensitive HPLC and fluorescence detection (FLD) method previously optimized and validated. None of the milk samples collected were found to be contaminated at a level above the limit of quantification (LOQ) (0.0125 ng/mL), while only one sample showed traces of the mycotoxin at a concentration between the limit of detection (LOD) and LOQ (0.0044 ng/mL), well below the legal limit established for infant milk and follow-on milk (0.025 ng/mL). These results are in line with those of the few similar surveys carried out on donkey milk and seem to indicate a low risk of AFM1 contamination for this food